Thanksgiving 2017

Looking back from the track loader

A little late on the post this week.  As the weather changes, and there is less and less daylight each day, I've been trying to spend more time with and reconnect with my family.  I'm very excited for this Thanksgiving holiday!

Work still continues, and yesterday dug in the water catchment swales/rain gardens at the healing garden project.  I'm thankful for the beautiful weather before this chilly wind rolled in.

What is a swale?  A swale is a ditch for collecting water, generally to move it elsewhere without undue erosion.  In my projects we usually use a swale on contour, meaning it is nearly level and water collects and soaks into the soil hydrating it.  If there is too much rain, it will move off site in a controlled manner, but we try to infiltrate as much as we can into organic matter rich soil for our plants use.

This video shows one of this summer's rain garden projects where we elongated them to act as hydrating features of the landscape, which will drought-proof the hazelnut, aronia and raspberry plantings.

Video Tour of a large Rain Garden

Back to the healing garden, I am also thankful for Beemer Landscaping who did the initial site grading for the walking paths. I've also used them for some retaining walls and other projects.  Their water features are top notch and Korey and his team have won awards at home shows where I have had feature gardens.

I'm also thankful for Bob and Tessa at Blooming Prairie Nursery.  I have had Bob help me on a couple projects and purchased many plants from them, check them out for your prairie and native plant needs.

Brandon at Browne Atlas has also been a friend and cooperator of Abundant Design.  They have worm castings available and can be used with our landscape installations for an early boost to your plantings.

Will and Jonathan are great guys over at Trinity Tree Care. They have also been a great resource, tree clearing/trimming help and helpful tree care advice.

Although I didn't get to work with Ralph as much this year, I am thankful for his friendship as well.  You can help out the Forest Avenue Community Orchard on Giving Tuesday and/or head down there on December 2nd to help with fall cleanup, meet new friends and enjoy refreshments.

I'm also thankful for my summer intern Michael, Ray at Cherry Glen Learning Farm, Drew at Land Matters and all of my wonderful customers.

I'm also so very thankful for my wife and family and their support this past year as the business has grown and I haven't always been home as much as I should have been.  After getting home past dark last night, with two of my kids helping me out, my wife had supper waiting, so I could eat quickly and get to the board meeting at Cherry Glen on time.

God has truly blessed me, and I am Thankful!

Healing Garden Update - One Year

It's hard to believe that only a year ago today we broke ground on the Primary Healthcare Eastside Clinic Healing Garden.

Before

Grading begins

Various reclaimed materials were used for ecological and budgetary considerations, as well as the inherent beneficial qualities they offered.

Piles of leaves, arborist wood chips and logs

A lot has changed on the site, with a lot more planned as well. The water catchment and runoff management has been built

In progress, with lots of rain

and many of the young fruit trees and supporting plants are in.

 The walking paths are mulched for now and ready to use, with more permanent surfacing planned for the future.

Bridge over the lower swale spillway

Walking path's lower loop

The raised beds (with log cores) for annual crops have been built and a modest fall planting was done. Also, various squash and melon vines took advantage of the sunny space in the young mixed orchard this summer.

Volunteers came out to put in hundreds of native prairie plants donated through People for Pollinators at Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge.

To learn more about the garden project and wellness center, plus more pictures, visit

http://www.phciowa.org/garden/

Now is the perfect time to get a design started for your project.  

Be ready to go next Spring!

Thanks for reading, and have a great week!

The Power of Healing Gardens

Spending time in natural settings is great for overall health and well-being.


Without it our children can even risk disease as described by Richard Louv in his book Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. 


Nature's positive effects on health are being studied more and more with stronger evidence all the time.  One of the most recent studies came out of Harvard, the departments of Epidemiology and Environmental Health.  Their findings suggest close proximity to natural spaces-

• lessen adverse environmental exposures 
• air pollution
• noise
• extreme heat
• increase physical activity
• increase social engagement
• lower stress

 

You can read the full paper or download the .pdf verison here.

There are an increasing number of scientific papers showing how being around dust could be helpful in preventing asthma.  There are also about the health benefits of getting your hands (and feet) dirty. 

Spending time in natural settings generally means physical activity, exposure to fresh air and is great for prevention!  Anyone who has spent time in nature knows the pleasant feelings that comes with it.

But sometimes we get sick, or are injured. So how can we use this information?  This is where modern medicine is taking cues from the natural world and using Healing Gardens to benefit patients and even staff! 

Healing Gardens are green spaces in hospitals, clinics and other healthcare facilities that specifically aim to improve health outcomes.  They promote healing and provide a place of refuge for patients, their families and staff.

Roger Ulrich was one of the first to promote a patients "View through a window..." can effect patient outcome - patients had fewer negative evaluative comments, took less medicine and averaged a day quicker post-operative recovery stays.  His influential work in the early 80's has been cited thousands of times and continues to influence healthcare facility design. 

Some of the documented benefits of Healing Gardens include:

• Shorter post-operative stays
• Less use of potent drugs
• Better attitudes
• Contribute to feelings of: 
• wholeness & health
• calm, relaxed
• the ability to think & cope
• being refreshed
• improved strength

More and more hospitals are adding healing gardens, especially for their Oncology and Alzheimer care units.

I was really excited to unveil the preliminary Healing Garden design at a presentation for a Des Moines based Wellness Center this weekend!

The plan includes common and private seating areas within and viewing natural settings.  Both sunnier and shadier areas are planned for all season enjoyment.

Sustainable and ecological design practices were also used to plan a walking path throughout an eventual prairie wildflower area, woodland, orchard and natural play space.

In addition, Permaculture techniques were applied to capture and store rainwater for the community garden and multiple orchard style areas that include guilds and companion plantings. 



This design incorporated several features that Abundant Design can design, install and manage for your property.  Contact me for any of these for your home or business.

If you are healthcare facility looking to improve patient outcomes, call us today!

The weather is perfect for being outside, and the fall colors are really showing.



The Sumac, Aronia and Blueberry are catching fire; and our Ash trees are pure gold! 



The peak color should be this week and next weekend!  Read more at Travel Iowa for details.




Go outside this week, enjoy the colors and stay healthy!!!



More Healing Garden Progress

Some more progress was made the last couple weeks since the healing garden anniversary update.

Log benches on the patio space

The patio common space (and bridge) was surfaced with crushed rock, and edged with some smaller leftover boulders.  The new durable surface really sets it apart from the mulched areas and is a nicer surface to gather.

You can also see some fresh woodchips around the garden beds if you look closely and the new cedar compost bins, too.  

The both the upper and lower spillways needed work done after the record rainfall early this summer.

Rain!

The upper portion was fixed and enhanced along with increasing flow capacity under the first bridge, about the same time as the raised beds were done.  Erosion continued on the lower spillway, in spite of some limited armoring work and plantings.

Additional boulders were brought in to stop continued erosion.  Elderberry shrubs will also help to hold soil in place as they mature, especially along the edges.

Over a dozen new benches were also added with salvaged logs.  A lot went for seating in the patio space (seen above) for community building events, a quick rest with friends, classes and more.

Both my chainsaw and I got a good workout in!

Finished Log Bench
 - natural and heavy - 

Until next time!

Awards Ceremony - 1000 Friends of Iowa

Here are some pictures from the 1000 Friends of Iowa Best Development Awards ceremony at the Iowa State Capitol last month.  

The weather didn't cooperate very well, but it was great to see and hear about the other great projects around the state.

Dr. Engebretsen, PHC and Jeff Reiland, Abundant Design

Here Dr. Engebretsen, along with the new Wellness Center team, and I accept the awards and share a few comments about the project's beginning, progress and intended outcomes, along with future uses and programming.

    

Read more about the Healing Garden at Primary Healthcare's Wellness Center at the links below:

• Latest progress
• One year
• Healing gardens

Ground Breaking November 2017

Learn even more and donate here http://www.phciowa.org/garden/


Abundant Design would love to help your organization with the design and installation of sustainable and regenerative landscapes!

A Regenerative Future Podcast

Several weeks ago I, along with Dr. Bery Engebretsen, had the pleasure to share some of our work on a popular podcast, A Regenerative Future with Matt Powers! 

Author and teacher Matt Powers, of The Permaculture Student, shares about Regenerative practices, community building & entrepreneurial topics, interviews and more.

Matt and I had been talking about it for some time and finally found a time we could all get together and discuss the Healing Garden at PHC's Eastside Clinic.

view the interview on YouTube also

Attend a Walk with a Doc at the garden!

Walks are held on the first and third Saturday of the month at 9 a.m.

Check out more of what Matt is working on, and sign up for one or some of his classes, at The Permaculture Student!

For all of Abundant Design's posts about Healing Gardens

CLICK HERE

Its been a busy Spring!
I'm looking forward to sharing about what else we've been working on!

Giving Tuesday 2018

This Giving Tuesday consider donating to these projects and organizations that are great friends of Abundant Design!


The Primary Health Care Healing Garden
Learn more and donate here http://www.phciowa.org/garden/

Read more at the links below-

• Latest progress
• One year
• Healing gardens

Also consider supporting the Forest Avenue Outreach Community Orchard Project. 

I've highlighted the orchard and the good work of Forest Avenue Outreach previously.  Read more here-

• Initial Tree Planting Event
• Patriot Day/Day of Service Projects - Trellises and Fire Ring
• The Summer Sustainability Series

And maybe these other great organizations, too.

Nine Square Feet
www.ninesquarefeet.org

Tree Grafting Workshop with Nine Square Feet

Lutheran Services of Iowa
https://lsiowa.org/refugee/csa/#register
https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/donateLSI?code=globalgreens

Global Greens Farm at the Valley Community Center

Spring Rush & Birthday Break

It's my birthday this week so I'm taking the week of blogging off, sort of I guess.

A video of the bats we watched hunt while playing

around at Walker Johnston park in Urbandale

Also read "Half Hearted Fanatic"

We've been working hard on several projects - retaining walls with native plantings, including a few edibles; Herbs by the grill and other edibles and shade plantings near a patio; and continued work on a backyard food forest.  We also were preparing for a couple rain gardens, native privacy screening and a patio/firepit project.

After enjoying some of the Spring sights (below) in our yard, I planted some tomatoes, peppers and more in our own garden, and gave our garage a much needed cleaning and sweeping. <cough, cough>

 Irises - close up

 Ostrich fern and one of the last tulips

Iris, strawberry, columbines and blue flax

Next week there is a fund raising event for Primary Health Care, the facility where the healing garden will be going.  Funds raised will go towards their mission of providing healthcare and supportive services for people in Central Iowa to improve their quality of life.

Support them here-

https://www.facebook.com/events/410370829300901

Tuesday, May 16 at 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM

Forte Banquet & Conference Center
615 3rd Street, Des Moines, Iowa 50309

Get tickets HERE

Have a great week!

Now Hiring!

It's almost Spring and project installations are soon to begin ! ! !

Are you highly motivated, hard-working, and seeking to join an award winning landscaping company?

Abundant Design LLC is a small, but growing, permaculture based landscaping design & install business located in central Iowa.  At Abundant Design, we help people build resiliency through edible landscapes and gardens, establish wildlife habitat and conservation practices.  We help provide experiences with nature and enjoyment of Creation in customers' backyards, properties and communities. 

Abundant Design is looking for motivated individuals to help bring these projects to life.

Positions involve lots of digging, planting of native and edible plants, shrubs and trees; moving compost, rock and mulch; some hardscapes, walls and other builds.

Mulching a new multi-species orchard on a southern Iowa homestead

Seasonal Full & Part Time Laborers

Perform landscaping and light construction for properties as directed.  Tasks may include, but not limited to - shoveling rock, sand, mulch and other materials on the job site; moving boulders; trenching by hand or with a machine; operating a laser level for grading; plantings ranging in size from large balled and burlapped (B&B) trees to delicate transplants

• Must be physically able to work hard outside in various conditions
• Must be able to communicate clearly and follow instructions
• Must be respectful of customers and their property 
• Must be able to get to and from job sites
• Must be at least 16 years of age
• Knowledge of, or experience in gardening, landscaping, horticulture, a plus
• Experience operating power tools, equipment and small machinery, a plus

Great summer experience for students in conservation, natural resources, regenerative agriculture, and sustainability fields, or anyone interested in the same.  

Pay ~$12-15/hr, depending on experience.

Fresh rain garden install - Urbandale

Full-Time Assistant & Crew Leader

Perform and lead team members in landscaping and light construction for properties as directed. Tasks may include, but not limited to - shoveling rock, sand, mulch and other materials on the job site; moving boulders; trenching by hand or with a machine; operating a laser level for grading; light grading with mini-skidsteer, hauling materials; plantings ranging in size from large balled and burlapped (B&B) trees to delicate transplants

• Must be physically able to work hard outside in various conditions
• Must be able to communicate clearly and follow instructions
• Must be respectful of customers and their property 
• Must be able to get to and from job sites around the Des Moines metro 
• Knowledge of/experience in permaculture, gardening, horticulture, biology/ecology, and regional ecosystems 
• Experience operating tools, power tools and small machinery safely and efficiently
• Interest in permaculture, conservation, regenerative agriculture and sustainability
• Experience in permaculture, conservation, native plants and/or regenerative agriculture, a plus
• BS/BA in Natural Resources, Permaculture Designer's Certificate, or Stormwater Best Management Practices training, a plus

Primarily working and training side by side with me through the early Spring, then independently or as a crew leader through the busy seasons.  Additional training opportunities possible.

Compensation commensurate with experience. 

Pergola build at the east side Healing Garden

To apply for these positions, email your Resume/CV/Work Experience and references to Abundant Design.